Elements of a Short Story

The grade 5s are studying the elements of a short story (or any narrative). The 4s will begin this soon also. We started by watching this short rap video on YouTube:

After watching the rap we made this anchor chart, there will be more anchor charts to follow on each element.

We discussed setting as being time and place and identified the settings of several well known stories and films such as The Wizard of Oz, The Hunger Games, and Cinderella. Then we looked more closely at plot development:

and created our own plot mountain using the Cinderella.

The students then made their own plot mountains using the book Teammates. We had some debate about whether the climax was when Jackie made the Dodgers team or when Pee Wee Reese walked over to Jackie and put his arm around him.

The grade 5 students are now beginning to plan for writing a narrative story. We are in the pre-writing stage of brainstorming and story mapping.